formerly cdixon.posterous.com

+1 button

Why doesn’t Google have a Like button for websites a la FB? If it improved SEO, sites would adopt it en masse, plus it would reduce web spam – @cdixon jan 16

As you might guess from my older tweet, I think Google’s +1 button is a smart move and what I was hoping they would launch. The real power will come when sites embed +1 buttons prominently to get better organic search rankings. Yes, I realize users might prefer to share via FB vs Google and hence prefer FB Like buttons, but the countervailing force is that websites will have a greater incentive to get users to press +1 over Like. Think of it like retail, where — while it does matter which products consumers prefer — it also matter how much and which shelf space the store allocates to each the product. FB has an advantage with users (“consumers like the product more”), but Google has an advantage with websites (they’ll get better “shelf space”).

A fine idea until we start talking through the many ways such a feature can be abused. And sure they can limit it to only registered and logged in users, leaving out the possibility for anonymous fraud. But it’s plain and simple to register thousands of scam accounts, use Decaptcher or equal service, and start skewing all the results in the direction you want.Don’t get me wrong,I like the idea it sounds similar to Blekko’s slashtags, but the potential for abuse is very high and very likely.

Agree with you Chris – and for those who think it will be gamed, you should read Tom Critchlow’s take – http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-1-and-the-rise-of-social-seoGoogle knows so much about what is/isn’t a real account and can use that data, plus the quality of the links/sites you +1 that there’s much less potential for gaming/spamming than many are suggesting. 1,000 +1s from non-real users is meaningless. 5 +1s from people who are longtime, real Google profiles (have used calendars, gmail, search, etc. naturally for years) could really mean something.I’d just say – make sure you’re picky with what you +1

@randfish the impact of author authority and user profiling can certainly have an effective impact – like you say – Google knows what a real account is versus a spam account. In the arms race of Internet security however, guess who always stays one step ahead? +1 if you said the attacker :)Let’s just review a bit of this year’s recent compromises – RSA SecurID, MySQL, Comodo CA’s, Facebook XSS, blah blah and those are just the public ones. What we see from the inside is even scarier.I agree with you though really – and this isn’t pessimism, I have simply been working in Internet security far too long. Time will tell, maybe they did get this one right. In that case I suppose that Internet search results now belong to the most active and logged in users 🙂 Oh boy!

As the PM of a nice-sized web product who’s pretty cognizant of both the dollar value of the traffic driven by both Google and Facebook and the trajectory of that traffic and performance, I’m absolutely going to hesitate before giving +1 better real estate than the FB Like button. I’m not at all convinced that we have a greater incentive to use +1. I’m stoked to see another signal added to improve search quality and social relevance, but I don’t see it adding much value to the discovery process until Google builds tools that cater to browsers/passive web users, rather than folks on a directed search. Context is critical, though. Google plays a much different role for one side of the Eventbrite marketplace than the other; organizers and attendees behave differently. Still, I imagine the same is true for other marketplaces as well.

I’m really concerned it’s a right decision for a Google to add “+1” button. Maybe that’s a good way for your self to mark good search results, but for others that won’t. Imagine… I like BMW cars more and will “+1” it. But others would prefer Ford… and where will be Ford in “cars” search request… May be that’s not the best example, but hope it makes sense.

I definitely see the incentive for websites to prioritize a +1 over a FB Like. Websites will jump on anything that will improve their SEO. What I am still having trouble grasping is how will Google incentivize me and other users to click on the +1? My search behavior has changed drastically in the last 5 years. When I search for things, I tend to reach out to my network first for recommendations, and if they can’t direct me, then my next step is to just search on Google. But if this is the case and my friend could not direct me in the first place, then it’s likely he didn’t “+1” a link with what I am looking for.I no longer “just google” things anymore. I like my search and discovery experience to be highly curated and directed. Not sure how +1 will curate that search and discovery experience.

Only problem, enough users would first have to know about what the +1 buttons are/mean, for site owners really to consider an outright switch, and not just an also-offered status for the +1 (in which case I just wouldn’t see too many mainstream users opting for +1).But Google appears to be trying pretty hard to prevent that from happening… 😉